Accompanying Young Clients Through Life’s Transitions

Many young people transitioning into the uncertainties of adulthood today are feeling more scared and alone than ever. One therapist has discovered that a key to helping them navigate the inevitable bumps of new challenges is being part of their journey over the long haul.

Putting Kids in the Therapeutic Driver's Seat

By Lynn Lyons - Why are our children so anxious and getting more so? It seems puzzling. After all, we live in the age of “helicopter parents” and ubiquitous child professionals. But too often in our anxiety to stop the anxiety, we surround the child with an anxiety-reinforcing system fixated on protecting the child from any twinge of the dreaded disease.

Why Anxiety is a Family Problem

When it comes to working with kids in therapy, it's easy to overlook how critical a role parents play in ensuring the success of treatment. But when so many parents are just as anxious as their children, and many have had negative experiences with therapy in the past, what's the best course of action? In the following interview, therapist Lynn Lyons explains the first thing you need to do when working with young clients and their parents.

Not all professional growth experiences come from classes, workshops, and consultation groups. Sometimes our youngest clients can help us expand our comfort zones and teach us more about ourselves than we ever thought possible. In her storytelling piece from the 2017 Networker Symposium, Lynn Lyons shares a moving, often hilarious, story about how her young client helped her become a stronger person and a better therapist.

A Story of Vulnerability and Possibility

By Lynn Lyons - Believe me, I like boundaries. My office is attached to the back of my house, and the rules surrounding that are made clear to my clients. But how can I teach my young worriers (and the older ones, too) to relish the uncertainty of human connection if I’m unwilling to connect genuinely with them?

Stories of Vulnerability and Possibility

The self-assurance of expert practitioners who publicly present their work can lead everyday therapists to believe that psychotherapy is a far more predictable craft than it actually is. The reality, of course, is much muddier. Therapists on the ground eventually learn that only one mantra applies to every case—it's more complicated than that.

Putting Kids in the Therapeutic Driver's Seat

By Lynn Lyons - Why are our children so anxious and getting more so? It seems puzzling. After all, we live in the age of “helicopter parents” and ubiquitous child professionals. But too often in our anxiety to stop the anxiety, we surround the child with an anxiety-reinforcing system fixated on protecting the child from any twinge of the dreaded disease.

Why Anxiety is a Family Problem

When it comes to working with kids in therapy, it's easy to overlook how critical a role parents play in ensuring the success of treatment. But when so many parents are just as anxious as their children, and many have had negative experiences with therapy in the past, what's the best course of action? In the following interview, therapist Lynn Lyons explains the first thing you need to do when working with young clients and their parents.

Not all professional growth experiences come from classes, workshops, and consultation groups. Sometimes our youngest clients can help us expand our comfort zones and teach us more about ourselves than we ever thought possible. In her storytelling piece from the 2017 Networker Symposium, Lynn Lyons shares a moving, often hilarious, story about how her young client helped her become a stronger person and a better therapist.

A Story of Vulnerability and Possibility

By Lynn Lyons - Believe me, I like boundaries. My office is attached to the back of my house, and the rules surrounding that are made clear to my clients. But how can I teach my young worriers (and the older ones, too) to relish the uncertainty of human connection if I’m unwilling to connect genuinely with them?

A Family Therapy Approach to Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

By Lynn Lyons - OCD, like other anxiety disorders, is like a cult leader, demanding acceptance of a skewed view of reality. It shows up and makes an announcement that’s distressing--the obsessive thought. It then posits a solution to the distress, some action, either internal or external, that offers temporary relief---the compulsion. But by including parents in therapy, it demystifies the disorder and allows them to be part of a family plan to deal with it.

Accompanying Young Clients Through Life’s Transitions

Many young people transitioning into the uncertainties of adulthood today are feeling more scared and alone than ever. One therapist has discovered that a key to helping them navigate the inevitable bumps of new challenges is being part of their journey over the long haul.

Stories of Vulnerability and Possibility

The self-assurance of expert practitioners who publicly present their work can lead everyday therapists to believe that psychotherapy is a far more predictable craft than it actually is. The reality, of course, is much muddier. Therapists on the ground eventually learn that only one mantra applies to every case—it's more complicated than that.

It’s a Family Affair

OCD in children can operate like a kind of cult leader, demanding acceptance of an extreme view of a perilous reality and offering solutions that can’t be resisted, no matter how absurd they may sound. Given the overwhelming fear and worry the condition generates, falling in line with the cult leader can seem like the best strategy—except that it doesn’t work.

Helping Anxious Kids and Their Parents

In this age of helicopter parents and protective child professionals, we can often recreate a potent anxiety- reinforcing system around children that not only rewards anxiety, but encourages it to grow and take over even more of the child’s life.

Lynn Lyons, LICSW, is an internationally recognized psychotherapist, author, and speaker with a special interest in interrupting the generational patterns of anxiety in families. Her skill-based approach to anxiety focuses on the need to teach families about HOW anxiety works and what families can do to pull members out of the powerful “anxiety cult” that demands obedience to its need for certainty and comfort. Lynn’s approach uses humor, playful connection, and a constant focus on DOING, an umbrella strategy she has taught to thousands of professionals and families.

Lynn is the co-author with Reid Wilson of Anxious Kids, Anxious Parents and the companion book for kids Playing with Anxiety: Casey’s Guide for Teens and Kids. She is the author of Using Hypnosis with Children: Creating and Delivering Effective Interventions and has two DVD programs for parents and children.

She maintains a private practice in Concord, New Hampshire where she sees families whenever she’s not on the road teaching.